Operation Albion

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Operation Albion
Part of World War I
Operation Albion amphibious operations 12–20 October
Date 12–20 October 1917 Location West Estonian archipelago, Baltic Sea Coordinates: 58°30′N 23°0′E / 58.500°N 23.000°E / 58.500; 23.000 Result German victory
Belligerents
German Empire	Russian Republic United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Oskar von Hutier Hugo von Kathen Ludwig von Estorff Ehrhard Schmidt	Mikhail Bakhirev Vasily Altvater
Strength
1 battlecruiser 10 dreadnought battleships 9 light cruisers 1 mine cruiser 50 torpedo boats 6 U-boats 19 transports 6 airships 102 combat aircraft 24,500 soldiers 8,500 horses 2,400 vehicles 150 machine guns 54 guns 12 mortars	2 pre-dreadnought battleships 2 cruisers 1 protected cruiser 21 destroyers 3 gunboats 3 submarines 24,000 soldiers
Casualties and losses
1 torpedo boat sunk (S 64) 7 minesweepers destroyed 9 trawlers & auxiliary vessels destroyed 5 aircraft shot down 156 killed 60 wounded (Navy) 54 killed 141 wounded (Army)	1 battleship sunk (Slava) 1 destroyer sunk () 1 submarine destroyed (HMS C32) unknown dead and wounded 20,130 captured 141 guns lost(47 heavy guns) 130 machine guns lost 40 aircraft lost

Panorama of the Tagalaht Bay, Saaremaa, Estonia. This was the location of the German landing on 12 October 1917.

German battleship Grosser Kurfürst photographed during Operation Albion in October 1917. Above is the Schütte-Lanz company naval airship S.L.20 (Type 'f').

Operation Albion was a German air, land and naval operation in October 1917 to occupy the West Estonian Archipelago, part of the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia, Russian Republic. The land campaign opened with landings at the Tagalaht, Saaremaa, on 12 October 1917, after extensive naval operations to clear mines and subdue coastal artillery batteries. The Germans secured the island by 16 October and the Russian Army evacuated Muhu on 20 October.

After two failed attempts, the Germans landed on Hiiumaa on 12 October, capturing the island on the following day. The Russian Baltic Fleet had to withdraw from the Suur Strait after its losses at the Battle of Moon Sound. The Germans claimed 20,000 prisoners and 100 guns captured during Operation Albion from 12 to 20 October.

Strategic significance[]

At the beginning of World War I the islands were of little importance to Imperial Russia or Germany. After the revolutionary turmoil in Russia during the early part of 1917, the German high command believed capturing the islands would outflank Russian defences and lay Petrograd (St. Petersburg) vulnerable to attack.^[1]

Order of battle[]

German units[]

• Naval Forces^[2] (Sonderverband): Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt
  • Battlecruiser: Moltke (flagship)
  • 3rd Battle Squadron (III. Geschwader)(Vice Admiral Paul Behncke) dreadnought battleships: König (flagship), Bayern, Grosser Kurfürst, Kronprinz, Markgraf
  • 4th Battle Squadron (IV. Geschwader) (Vice Admiral Wilhelm Souchon) dreadnought battleships: Friedrich der Grosse (flagship), König Albert, Kaiserin, Prinzregent Luitpold, Kaiser
  • 2nd Cruiser Squadron (II. Aufklärungsgruppe) (Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter) cruisers: Königsberg (flagship), Karlsruhe, Nürnberg, Frankfurt, Danzig
  • 4th Cruiser Squadron (VI. Aufklärungsgruppe) (Rear Admiral Albert Hopman) cruisers: Kolberg (flagship), Strassburg, Augsburg; minelayer: Nautilus; tender: Blitz
  • Torpedo Boats (Commodore ) cruiser: Emden (flagship)
    • 2nd Torpedo Boat Flotilla: B 98; 3rd Half-Flotilla: G 101, V 100, G 103, G 104; 4th Half-Flotilla: B 109, B 110, B 111, B 97, B 112
    • 6th Torpedo Boat Flotilla: V 69; 12th Half-Flotilla: V 43, S 50, V 44, V 45, V 46; 13th Half-Flotilla: V 82, S 64 , S 61, S 63, V 74
    • 8th Torpedo Boat Flotilla: V 180; 15th Half-Flotilla: V 183, V 185, V 181, V 184, V 182; 16th Half-Flotilla: S 176, S 178, G 174, S 179, V 186
    • 10th Torpedo Boat Flotilla:: S 56; 19th Half-Flotilla: T 170, T 169, T 172, G 175, T 165; 20th Half-Flotilla: V 78, V 77, G 89, S 65, S 66
    • 7th Half-Flotilla: T 154, T 158, T 157, T 151, T 160, T 145, T 140, T 139
  • Courland Submarine Flotilla (U-BootsFlottille Kurland): UC 56, UC 57, UC 58, UC 59, UC 60, UC 78
  • Minesweepers (Minensuchdienst)
    • 2nd Minesweeper Flotilla: A 62; 3rd Half-Flotilla: T 136, M 67, M 68, M 75, M 76, M 77, T 59, T 65, T 68, T 82, T 85; 4th Half-Flotilla: T 104, T 53, T 54, T 55, T 56, T 60, T 61, T 62, T 66, T 67, T 69; 8th Half-Flotilla: M 64, M 11, M 31, M 32, M 39, A 35
    • 3rd Half-Flotilla of the Search Flotilla: T 141, 15 motor-boats
    • Mine-Searcher Group of the Outpost Half-Flotilla East: 6 fishing vessels
    • 1st Minesweeper Division (Riga): 11 motor-boats
    • 2nd Minesweeper Division: 12 motor-boats
    • 3rd Minesweeper Division: 12 motor-boats
    • 4th Minesweeper Division: 10 motor-boats; outpost boat O 2
    • Mine-barrage Breaker group (Sperrbrechergruppe): Rio Parbo, Lothar, Schwaben, Elass
  • Anti-Submarine Forces (U-Bootsabwehr)
    • Baltic Search Flotilla: T 144; 1st half-flotilla: T 142, A 32, A 28, A 30, 32 fishing vessels; 2nd half-flotilla: T 130, A 31, A 27, A 29, 24 fishing vessels
• Ground Forces: Generalleutnant Ludwig von Estorff
  • 42nd Division
  • 2nd Infanterie Cyclist Brigade

Russian units[]

• 425th, 426th and 472nd Infantry Regiments
• Battleships: Tsesarevich, Slava
• Armored cruiser: Admiral Makarov
• Destroyers: , Novik, , , ,
• Gunboats: ,
• Blockship: Lavwija
• Minelayer: ^[3]

British units[]

• Submarines: HMS C26, HMS C27, HMS C32

See also[]

• German occupation of Estonia during World War I
• British submarine flotilla in the Baltic

Footnotes[]

Bibliography[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Operation Albion.

• 1 October entries on this site summarise Operation Albion
• Detailed account of Operation Albion
• "Oesel Genommen", film footage of the invasion in 1917 from the German Federal Archives
• Gregory Thiele "Operation Albion and Joint Amphibious Doctrine" Joint Forces Quarterly October 2010